A Matter of Time
'' |image= |series= |production=40275-209 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Rick Berman |director= Paul Lynch |imdbref=tt0708672 |guests=Stefan Gierasch as Dr. Hal Moseley, Matt Frewer as Berlinghoff Rasmussen, Sheila Franklin as Ensign Felton, Shay Garner as Scientist The following were uncredited Rachen Assapiomonwait as Crewman Nelson, Michael Braveheart as Crewman Martinez, Carl David Burks as Ensign Russell, Cameron as Ensign Kellogg, Cullen G. Chambers and Lanier Edwards as Command Division Officers, Tracee Cocco as Ensign Jae, John Copage as Science Division Officer, Michael Echols as Civilian in Ten Forward, Grace Harrell as Operations Division Officer, Reuel Kim as Boy in Sickbay, Mark Lentry as Science Division Officer, Keith Rayve as Command Division Ensign, Gina Saadi as Nurse. |previous_production=Unification Part 1 |next_production=New Ground |episode=TNG E09 |airdate=18 November 1991 |previous_release=Unification Part 2 |next_release=New Ground |story date(s)=Stardates 45349.1-45351.9 |previous_story=Unification Part 2 |next_story=New Ground }} =Summary= While trying to reverse the nuclear winter type effects caused by a crashed asteroid on Penthara IV, the Enterprise is visited by a time travelling historian from twenty-sixth century Earth, Berlinghoff Rasmussen. The officer's initial suspicions give way to impatience, when Rasmussen repeatedly asks to see their 'artifacts,' and to have questionnaires filled out, but most crew members go along with his teasing, and his annoying cheeriness. The ship's first try at helping Penthara IV only makes things worse, then La Forge comes up with an alternative plan, that will either clear the atmosphere or burn it off entirely, killing every living on the planet. Desperate for help, Picard turns to Rasmussen, but the time traveller says he can't divulge the future. When the Pantharans agree to Geordi's plan, so does Picard. Luckily it works. Rasmussen quickly moves to leave after the planet is saved, but Picard first demands he be allowed to search the time pod for items reported missing by the crew. The time traveller agrees to let Data enter, because he can be ordered not to divulge any secrets of the future, but once the two are inside the pod, Rasmussen pulls a phaser, and reveals he is really from the twenty-second century. He appropriated the real twenty-sixth century time traveller's craft, and came forward in time to gather trinkets, which now include Data, that he could claim to have invented, but a suspicious Picard had Rasmussen's phaser deactivated. Helpless, Rasmussen is stranded inb the twenty-forth century, when the pod's timed return mechanism whisks it away without him. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # Picard apparently being able to determine that Rasmussen's credentials are genuine, despite them coming from the future.Cybermortis on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 4:25 pm: (Nit Central) It's possible that Ras picked the Enterprise D because the Federation at this time became aware that time travellers from the future sometimes came calling. If so this information may have (and probably would be) kept on a need to know basis. We know from Voyager that Starfleet Captains have access to hidden Omega files that contain information that are top secret but which they may need to know and act on. It is possible that if the Federation became aware of travellers from the future they could have left hidden films in their data-bases that could only be activated several hundred years in the future. These files may give a code that such travellers could use to confirm they are from the future. This would answer two nits; Ras picked the Enterprise D because this may be the first Enterprise that carries the files, hence it is the earliest Enterprise on which he could convince the Captain he really is from the future. Going too far into the future may pose problems, in so far that the technology may be far to advanced for him to understand and copy. When Picard talks about checking his credentials, what he meant was that Ras gave him a code that could only have been activated a few hundred years in the future. Changed Premises # Riker asking when historians began to use time travel for research, despite Kirk's crew conducting historical research in Assignment: Earth. Kirk's crew were not professional historians, which is what Riker's question is referring to. Equipment Oddities # The music in Data's quarters not restarting after finishing his call from La Forge. The computer may be programmed to wait for a restart command from Data. # The remote phaser deactivation used here not being used in The Hunted and Power Play. That system may have been overridden on those occasions. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Friday, July 27, 2001 - 4:28 am: About some planetquakes, Geordi says, "If we were on Earth, I would say they were 8 on the Richter scale." Why would the Richter Scale change just because they were on another planet? Wouldn't an 8.0 quake be an 8.0 quake whether you were on Earth, Penthara IV, or even Mars? LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 9:10 pm: Why? How are points along the Richter scale calibrated? Are they done so in a manner that would be universal among interstellar races? Given the number of different races in the Federation, is it possible that the Federation has adopted a different one from the one Earth scientists use? # If Picard were really worried about the safety of the colonists, then why not try to evacuate them before trying the dangerous procedure? And even if there are too many people to put on the Enterprise, shouldn't a colony have ships, just in case of an emergency? (Or is there some kind of Federation policy that colonies are not allowed to have spaceships? Perhaps the Starfleet Captain's Union insisted on this policy so that starship Captains can impress women by saving some planet from one disaster or another?) LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 9:10 pm: Maybe the hangar were the all evac ships were kept just happened to be right over the epicenter of that 8.5 earthquake, and collapsed? ' # ''John A. Lang on Thursday, November 07, 2002 - 10:03 pm: At one point, Rasmussen walks out of Sick Bay with the medical device...and nobody stops him. He only asked to LOOK at it. Not TAKE it! Shouldn't SOMEONE say, "Hey, that device stays here"? or AT LEAST take it away from him before he exits? ''LUIGI NOVI on Friday, November 08, 2002 - 4:46 pm:'' Obviously, Crusher didn't mind that he take a better look at it in the privacy of his quarters, perhaps when writing his "reports." She got it for him, and he did show it to her when the sickbay door closed on him as Crusher was looking right at him.''' Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation